President Obama crowns victor of turkey ‘Hunger Games’

Popcorn won the battle for the coveted title of National Thanksgiving Turkey, President Barack Obama announced Wednesday at the annual turkey pardoning.

“The office of the presidency, the most powerful position in the world, brings with it many awesome and solemn responsibilities. This is not one of them,” the president told the crowd. “But the White House turkey pardon is a great tradition, and I know Malia loves it, as does Sasha.

Eighty turkeys “competed for the chance to make it to the White House and stay off the Thanksgiving table,” Obama said.

“It was, quite literally, ‘The Hunger Games,’” Obama said, laughing at his own joke. “And then, after weeks of vocal practice and prepping for the cameras, the two tributes, Caramel and Popcorn, went head-to-head together for America’s vote as top gobbler.”

The competition “was stiff, but we can officially declare that Popcorn is the winner, proving that even a turkey with a funny name can find a place in politics,” the president said.

“As for Caramel, he’s sticking around and he’s already busy raising money for his next campaign,” Obama joked.

Obama pardoned both turkeys, but only one contender could score the title. The White House had taken the contest to social media on Tuesday, pitting the two brothers against each other for votes in a battle that some likened on Twitter, as the president did at the pardoning, to the hit movie and book series, “The Hunger Games.”

The turkeys, brothers born on July 8 on a farm near Badger, Minn., stayed at the swanky Willard Hotel for two nights before the big day. After the presidential pardon, the birds will spend the holidays at Mount Vernon, the historic home of George Washington, then they’ll be off to their final destination, Morven Park’s Turkey Hill Farm in Leesburg, Va.

“Caramel and Popcorn may have been raised together, but each has flown their own path,” according to the White House blog post announcing the competition. “Caramel is a steady and deliberate bird that enjoys soybean meal and rocking out to Lady Gaga. When Popcorn is feeling peckish, he can’t stop snacking on his namesake, corn, and has been known to strut around to Beyoncé’s ‘Halo.’”

As for the history of the presidential turkey pardon, President George H.W. Bush officially started the annual tradition in 1989. But as the White House notes in its “definitive” history of the Thanksgiving rite, “tales of spared turkeys date back to the Lincoln days.”

“According to one story, Lincoln’s son Tad begged his father to write out a presidential pardon for the bird meant for the family’s Christmas table, arguing it had as much a right to live as anyone. Lincoln acquiesced and the turkey lived,” the post states.

And every year since 1947, the National Turkey Federation chair has given a turkey to the president.

“In 1963, President Kennedy decided to send that year’s gift from the National Turkey Federation back to the farm where it came from,” the White House post states. “‘We’ll just let this one grow,’ he said. Sometime around the Nixon administration, the President began sending the turkey to a petting farm near Washington after holding the traditional receiving ceremony and photo op, although no formal pardon was given.”

Even though Popcorn reigned supreme for the Thanksgiving title, both birds will be pardoned and live out their lives in Leesburg after the ceremony. Their brother — fittingly named Delicious — met Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton on Monday at a ceremony that only briefly stayed his fate. Unlike his luckier siblings, Delicious is off to the St. Paul Salvation Army and will be served as dinner for the less-fortunate, The Associated Press reported.

The president and his family, meanwhile, later on Wednesday “will bring a couple less fortunate turkeys to a great organization that works to help out our neighbors here in D.C. who need it most,” Obama said.